New Book: The Fragmentation of a Sect: Schism in the Worldwide Church of God by David V Barrett

Click image to enlarge to see COG organizational splits

Not from Barrett's book.

David Barrett is coming out with a new book this December about the fragmentation of the Worldwide Church of God in the late 1990's into the numerous splinter groups that exist today.  Barrett's earlier book, The New Believers is an extraordinary look at the growth of new religions.  He wrote at that time about the rise of Scientology, Moonies, and a large section of the book on the Worldwide Church of God and it's evolution away from Armstrong teaching towards "mainstream" belief.

Description

In the mid-1930s an unsuccessful American advertising executive, Herbert W. Armstrong, founded a millenialist, Sabbatarian Christian sect with a heterodox theology. Over the next half century, despite a number of setbacks, scandals, criticisms, and attacks from former members and anti-cultists, Armstrong's organization, the Worldwide Church of God, grew to around 100,000 baptized members with a world circulation of between six and eight million for its flagship monthly magazine Plain Truth. In January 1986, Armstrong died. His successor changed most of the Church's distinctive doctrines, leading it towards an increasing convergence with mainstream Evangelical Christianity. This revision created a massive cognitive dissonance in ministers and members: should they accept or reject the authority of the Church leadership which had abandoned the authority of the founder's teachings? Groups of ministers left the religion to form new churches, taking tens of thousands of members with them. These schismatic churches in turn faced continuing schism, resulting in over 400 offshoot churches within little more than a decade.

In this major study David V. Barrett examines the processes involved in schism and the varying forms of legitimation of authority within both the original church and its range of offshoots, from hardline to comparatively liberal. His book extends the concepts of rational choice theory when applied to complex religious choices. More important, he offers a new typological model for categorizing how movements can change after their founders' death, including schism, and explores the usefulness of this model by applying it not only to the Worldwide Church of God, but also to a wide variety of other religions.

To preorder:  The Fragmentation of a Sect: Schism in the Worldwide Church of God by David V. Barrett

Are You "SAD" Because You Don't Believe In A Literal Adam and Eve?

E. W. King thinks so! You are such a sad lot of people!  You believe in UFO's and all kinds of beasties, but not in Adam and Eve.  So sad! Sad, Sad, Sad!  So really, really sad!

Those sad people….what will they think of next?

There are many who have decided that God is not powerful enough to create a literal Adam & Eve. They doubt every story in the Bible. Why? I call these people, “sad people”. This is so amazing. These people believe in extraterrestrials, flying saucers, gurus who can levitate and make things appear out of nowhere, etc yet they spit in God’s face.

Is King upset that people don't believe in Adam and Eve or the fact that he has been labeled a fundamentalist?  I think that is more of an issue to him than people questioning the Bible.

They think that this way they will sound much smarter than those “old fashion” fundamentalists. That word,… “Fundamentalist” …..hhhmmm. That word is not in the Bible. I guess this is a title that the “sad people” want to label true Christians with. It gives the sad people a sense of authority.
 

[I use the title, “Sad People” in response to their title, “fundamentalist”]

So what happens when you reject Adam and Eve? You turn into a pro-abortion gay drug user.

So now, let us look at how these poor sad people live, those who think that the Bible is make-believe. Some are homosexuals; some believe in abortion, some use drugs. 

Oh, and you watch American Idol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Sad!  So very very sad!

Hhhmmm. Again, these sad people who reject the Bible sit and read stories of Buddha, little fairies, make believe space aliens and watch American Idol. 

So what is there left for a poor non believer to do?  You cuss! You curse, and cuss, and curse.....

They think that their little pea brain has all the answers. Sad, sad people. They cuss and curse, they cheat and lie, they abuse their relationships and their bodies. This is the fact!

Once you have sunken to this low moral cesspool there is only one place left to go.  STARBUCKS!

Many of these types sit at coffee shops with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths. They begin sentences like; “Yes, the mythological stories of all the religions are basically teaching the same thing. Oh, did you see the recent extraterrestrial documentary? The ET’s are watching us.” Sad, sad people. These fundamentally decadent people.

Then, after you have reached your caffeine high that is causing you to turn into an atheist, you have the moral dilemma to consider whether to go home and feed your dog or go to Burger King.  Such tough decisions!  Obviously, cussing coffee drinking gay abortionists can't make up their minds on what to do. Does one feed Rover or get a Whopper with cheese.

The subtlety of their theological errors is what I began to notice. Most of them are atheists. Doesn’t take much to start believing the wrong way. Doesn’t take much to swallow bad food, drugs and false doctrine. People just jump right in. They want to be with the crowd. It is so much safer in the “big group”. The perverted and doctrinally twisted herd. It’s like deciding: “Hhhhmm, should I feed the dog today or go to Burger King.”

There you have it folks!  The sad life of a questioning nonbeliever.

Those Sad People

Is Eric the 7th Messenger?

This is too dumb to pass up. 

Eric King (E.W. King) has written "A Song of Beauty to the Worldwide Church of God"

Eric feels that because of his awesome dudeness he may be the 7th witness/last messenger to the Church of God.  All of these endtime messengers are starting to get pretty ridiculous.  Just how many "witnesses" does the COG need now?  There is Meredith, Flurry, Pack, Cox, Weinland, UCG, COGWA, and many more who feel they are some kind of "special agent" here on earth to present some "special message" to the lost sheep of the COG.

Is Eric King the Seventh [last] Messenger? This free booklet has information not posted on this site or any other. It is a prophetic revelation! Who is the antitypical Cyrus, David and just who is the Seventh Messenger [angel]? 

The Church of God has crossed over to each new era. From the Ephesus to the Smyrna, from the Smyrna to the Pergamos, from the Pergamos to the Thyatira, from the Thyatira to the Sardis, from the Sardis to the Philadelphia, and from the Philadelphia to the seventh and last…the Laodicean. Each church era had a faithful angel [messenger] which helped it cross into the next phase. Herbert W. Armstrong was the sixth messenger in the sixth church age. Who is the Seventh Messenger? It is this Seventh Messenger who is to give the Church “meat in due season”. [Matthew 24:45-47] I am speaking the Truth!

Can these buffoons just give it a rest?